The Rural Voice, 1982-10, Page 34705 VISTA VILLA FARMS LTD.
R.R. #4 WALTON, ONT.
INTRODUCING "B.B." CALUMET
Recently imported Duroc Boar.
Strengths will be stoutness, agressiveness, heavy
bone, excellent mother line.
To be used on daughters of 1981 Ont. Pork
Congress Supreme Champion Boar.
We have confidence this combination will result in
equalling the following New Dundee R.O.P. Test
Station Figures:
Vista Villa Yorkshire boars
107.8 Average Contemporary Index
Vista Villa Hampshire boars
116.8 Average Contemporary Index
1981 O.P.P.M.B. Average of 106.2
on over 1800 Market Hogs
For York, Hamp, Duroc and
Crossbred boars and York x Landrace
gilts with this kind of
back ground, give us a call.
VISTA VILLA FARMS LTD.
ROBERT J. ROBINSON
RR #4 WALTON, ONT NOK1Z0
TEL. 519-345-2317
PG. 34 THE :-LURAL VOICE / OCTOE3ER 1982
KEITH ROULSTON
One more spin
of the vicious circle
It is often easier to study history from a safe distance than to
live through it but one has the feeling that living through the
1980's will someday be something to tell your grandchildren
about.
We are living through a time of great change although at this
point in time it is hard to figure out just what that change will be.
First we saw our whole lifestyle in the 1970's altered because of a
shortage of petroleum, now we see what the shortage of
affordable credit is doing. It would seem that the farm of the
future, will be greatly changed but just how is still the question.
Ever since the Second World War there has been the same
battle going on. The old breed of farmers believed in a set
philosophy of never doing something until you could afford it.
Going back to before the depression, there was a horror of being
in debt. Perhaps it was the pride ingrained in people by their
pioneer parents and grandparents that said whatever they owned
they wanted to own, not owe to a banker or money lender.
But that world changed. The revolution or farm mechanization
that began with the manpower shortages of two world wars was
aided by a deluge of new young farmers to the land in the late
1940's and early '50's. They, in turn, were affected, by the new
ideas in farming coming out of more research being done in
agricultural schools.
In the battle between the old ideas of thrift, of self-sufficiency
and the new ideal of creative use of credit, and specialization, the
new won out. In the boom years of good prices and cheap
petroleum and credit, the winners were the farmers who knew
how to take a chance, to expand quickly with more buildings,
bigger machinery and more land and specialize in two or three
crops.
Suddenly in the economic crunch of the 1980's, the world has
been turned topsy turvey again. Those who became to
overconfident in their expansion, in their use of borrowed credit
are the heavy losers. Suddenly the idea of self-financing, of not
depending on borrowed credit, looks better all the time.
But how will it all end? Is this just a minor reversal for the
bigger -is -better beliefs? Will this just be one more spin of the
vicious circle that will lop a few more farmers off the land and
mean the others, the survivors, get bigger and bigger? Or is it a
sign that the trend of the last forty years is going to undertake a
real change, that the pendulum has swung too far and will now
head back toward the old ideals of trying to be as self-sufficient
as possible to reduce the danger to your farm from the vagaries of
the outside world?
Here's one corner from which the hope springs that the latter
case is true, that the end of the ever bigger and more specialized
farming unit is over. We aren't likely to see a return to the days of
the 100 -acre farm but hopefully the new trend might keep some
sanity in the size of farms before they turn into giant factories,
inhuman in scale, and destroy the whole structure of rural society
for the sake of cheap food.
LIVESTOCK ON ROADWAYS
Did you know that you are liable if your livestock is
involved in an accident on a public road? All farmers are
responsible for maintaining fences and keeping their stock
off the roads. Don't set the stage for a serious accident.
Check your fences and make sure that your livestock is
secure and safe.
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